Boring meal planning for somewhat fussy eaters

[drspouse]

Please don't say "but WHY won't you try to feed the DCs XYZ" because one of them has ADHD and quite a small appetite so we do need to get the calories down them.
So please don't post if you are going to be offended that I can't feed my DCs whatever you are suggesting.
And I'm trying to eat more veg/less fat/lose weight.
DH is a really panicky cook (that's the best way to put it, honestly!) and comes over all faint at the thought of cooking something new - if it's his turn to cook, it's oven something and wedges, Bolognese, or panic buying a ready meal.

I am wondering about having a monthly plan where we always eat the same on each day (like the DCs school dinner menus) just to get out of the decision fatigue. I get bored if I cook the same on a given day (I used to give the DCs their choice after being at out of hours club/childminder after school because they were knackered but DS always chose fish fingers and DD always chose home made pizza and I got fed up of making those once a week!). Then we had a babysitter who cooked tea for them for a bit so we'd have a curry or something later and they'd have pasta pesto at least twice a week.

Now we are totally in a rut but a last minute rut! An Oh Sh*t what's for tea grab the chicken nuggets and curly fries rut.

I looked at the Tesco meal planner online but it was all "squash and feta risotto" and "root vegetable korma" and other things that they would run a mile before tasting.

You'll need to tell us all the things you all ear/don't eat...

True! I'm just fed up of them!
I eat more or less anything. Just trying not to eat chips every day!

Husband doesn't like beans, has odd fish dislikes (I can't quite work them out, sea bass yes, hake no?? I have no idea, no seafood except prawns), doesn't like pasta with creamy sauces.
DD likes most things but only likes small portions of boiled or mashed potatoes (she'll eat gallons of chips or roast potatoes so we don't worry about that and just feed her everything.
DS the list of what he doesn't eat is probably slightly shorter than the list of what he does eat but I'll try to list what he does eat.
He eats pasta (though mainly with tom/bolognese/bacon/pesto not much else, will eat mac and cheese with veg). Potatoes in most forms though if we have cottage/shepherd's pie it has to be deconstructed. Mince in most forms.

Rice ONLY in chorizo or bacon and pea risotto (and he tends to pick out the meat), or rice pudding. This is my biggest bugbear as he ate loads of rice dishes as a toddler, and we like rice dishes.

Roast and mash/roast potatoes and gravy (including chicken, but will only eat chicken as nuggets if not as a roast). Chicken or beef are a safer bet than other roasts.
Fish fingers, breaded fish, tuna in a sandwich but not in a bake or pasta sauce. I think he will eat salmon but it varies.
Sausages (veggie sausages we have given up on except in pasta sauce). Has stopped liking hot dogs (but I am not a fan so I don't complain).
Burgers (will just about tolerate one type of veggie burger).
Sometimes he will eat stew. Surprised us all by loving lamb kofta with naan (we knew he liked naan as he keeps nicking ours).
Most breads. Garlic bread. Won't eat pastry (I once made pasties and he ate the inside and DD ate the pastry).
We can hide a tiny bit of cheese on a pizza and will eat parmesan but the only other cheese is buckets of grated cheddar on baked beans 🙄. Also no white sauces even without cheese except mac and cheese. But will drink custard by the pint 🙄
One of his issues is if it looks funny or is hot, even if he's had it before, or if the moon is round, or if someone has looked at him strangely on the way home from school, he turns against his tea and gets cross. Often he will come back to it later though!

Both eat a fairly wide variety of green veg (broccoli, cauli, carrots if raw/grated/occasionally in sauce. Raw pepper, cherry toms, lettuce with balsamic, raw spinach with balsamic, in fact most things with balsamic. Peas, sweetcorn, both will taste green beans but not eat much so we just cook them anyway. If we put spinach in the pasta pesto they will take a bite and not reject the whole thing.

Toad in the hole? I do it with either big, fat turkey sausages from Asda that look like "normal sausages" but healthier and taste better IMO or the chicken sausages from aldi/heck. That with the veg they eat could work?

If they like mince then chilli could work? My DC don't like rice so I serve chilli in a bowl and then tortilla wraps and grated cheese on the table so they can help themselves and turn it in to a burrito. DS2 will only eat cheese in grated form like this - not for a sandwich or anything else. Just on chilli or pasta 🤷🏼‍♀️

Burgers. I buy the fresh, lean quarter pounders in aldi. DC2 won't take the burger bun (but eats literally every other roll/bread he can find) but other than that it's an easy one for us all to have and I just make some veg/sweet potato fries (waffles for DC)

Those all sound good. I would prefer my chili with beans but I could put in one each for me and the DCs and DH could pick them out.
I'm not keen to plan all meals ever (DH would totally leave me to do it if I let him). So I'm wondering if anyone has managed to coerce a reluctant cook into meal planning beyond "we'll have chips".

I have a very fussy child, mildly fussy and a bone fussy so a lot of our meals are tailored to them slightly. Today we had chicken in a sauce with egg fried rice (one child hates peas and sweetcorn but egg fried rice with peas and sweetcorn in it is a favourite 🙄) for the fussy kids the chicken was plain so they could either have ketchup or sweet and sour sauce. Yesterday was bbq chicken with wraps and salad, all in bowls so they can help themselves to what they like. Can you not spend some time cooking on the weekend and getting it out of the freezer when you are in a rush or in the morning. I freeze egg fried rice, various chicken dishes, chilli, bolognese, lasagne, mash, casseroles, fajita mixes, hunters chicken, currry and many more. I also made a nice chicken and bacon lasagne the other week, bacon and chicken in a white sauce with lasagne sheets.

*none fussy

Frittata with veg that they like. The cheese in it isn’t obvious. Maybe this recipe? recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/cherry-tomato-pea-frittata-1

Vegetable stir fry www.hellofresh.co.uk/recipes/veggie-noodle-stir-fry-v-5c0130b9c445fa53534d0612

Savoury bread pudding recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/cheese-and-tomato-bread-and-butter-pudding

Fish finger tacos realfood.tesco.com/recipes/fish-finger-tacos.html

They'd eat fish finger tacos but not frittata (I forgot to say DS doesn't like eggs).

Anything in sauce like Hunter's chicken, lasagne etc is no good except for a few things (I don't think it's a texture thing - he loves gravy, Bolognese, etc).

I don't have time or energy to batch cook at weekends and TBH I don't see why I should as DH would never do it (we do cook extra and save some, and we both do that) - I'm trying to make this a bit more equal and not me thinking of everything and him cooking chips or getting a ready meal.

So I may want motivational tips rather than recipes!

(DS will eat chicken chow mein from the takeaway but I cannot get him to eat it when we make it, or any other stir fry!)

You've actually listed quite a lot there - it's certainly more than my fussy eater will have. Are all these things meals your DH could cook? Because in that case, what about a monthly planner with these things on it, spread out over the month, and whoever does the shopping makes sure the ingredients are to hand on a week by week basis?

If they like roast chicken, a small change that we managed to incorporate here was to do baked chicken thighs. DD (fussy one) doesn't eat the skin anyway, so it allows me to do different types of flavourings and it's easier than a full roast. I generally serve with potatoes (mash/new potatoes) and veg and because DD now thinks "roast chicken" can only be eaten with yorkshire puddings... with yorkshire puddings!

"Posh" nuggets? We buy the full size crumbed chicken breasts from waitrose. The rest of us eat them as burgers sometimes. FussyDD just eats them as nuggets. This works well too when she has playdates.

"Super Posh, Mummy's nuggets" are fresh chicken breasts that I cut horizontally (can't be arsed with the smashing etc), dip in flour, egg, breadcrumbs, and lightly fry.

Mini chicken burgers: (Note - it's the "mini" part that seems to make these appealing so I don't even bother attempting to do it will full size buns!)! Buy (or use a cookie cutter to make smaller) small buns. Fry mini chicken fillets in some oil until just cooked. Serve with whatever the child will have - mine will do avocado with carrots/cucumber on side.

Would they eat meatballs in a tomato sauce? I also buy sausage meat which I roll into balls and use for the meatballs - goes down well. Can usually shove a few hidden veg in the form of grated carrots/courgetts etc too. Bonus.

Feel you on the rice. DD used to love a bit of risotto but won't touch it in any form now. I occasionally get her to eat a bit by serving it with stew but mostly she just picks out the meat and vegetables. You could try fried rice - DS loves it and I know quite a few of his friends do too.

I feel your pain. I have similar problems.

I don’t mealplan precisely because I have adhd and I can’t just stick to the plan, but I have broad categories - like chicken on Monday, fish on Tuesday, mince on Wednesday.

chicken might be Alfredo/fajitas/stirfry/curry or even nuggets. It’s chopped and bagged in the freezer, along with some sauces (others are just jars) and frozen veg. I need the flexibility for my sanity but I also need to limit my choices too.

mince is precooked and bagged and turns into bolognese, tacos, chilli, shepherds pie, lasagnes. I also have burgers and meatballs in that category.

sometimes I cook a different version for the fussy dc. Or a chips and something frozen meal if everyone else wants something he won’t have.

I always do lots of veg (half a plate) and sometimes I’ll leave some raw if someone prefers that.

I don’t think my family have noticed that there’s a plan because it’s not the same meal every week.

I know my specific meals might not work for you but could you group what your family eat into similar categories and work from there?

maybe if you assign one night (Friday?) for chips and nuggets it might stop it being a default option at other times?

@SpaceOP I know we are very lucky in relative terms!
I wonder if fried rice from the takeaway might be acceptable?
The DCs both want to eat our breaded fish fillets so maybe chicken escalopes might work.

Have you tried gnocchi? Goes with a lot of things and can replace pasta/rice/potatoes in a lot of dishes.
You say rice dishes are tricky, but if he likes naan can't you just give ds naan when you have rice?

There's nothing we would want with naan that he'd eat anyway!
We tried gnocchi but it wasn't taken well. We could try a different brand though as it was quite soggy.

Tortilini with or without sauce.those fridge packets have such long dates.
What about piebase but using garlic bread or wedges or sauteed/roasted potatoes as the our top instead of pastry.its yummy different.
Sausage and bean casserole
Stews or casserole with woffled topping is fun.
Pasta with folio and franferter or normal sausages in us nice and bloody quick.you could be panic tea'd with that one!
Croqueetes
Veggie burgers
Savoury crumbles

Bolognese pasta bake
Jackets
Roast potato type hash.
Potato cakes
Curry
Hot pot
Bubble and squeek

What about taco mince and rice? Mine love it with soft tortillas and salad.

Have you tried the gnocchi in the oven? It crisps up nicely then.

I think I do what you are planning. We have a 4 week rotation for meals. Worked out which days the kids don't eat with us due to hobbies etc and then made a list of all the meals we all ate (or a variation of) and then fitted them in, putting meals that use the same ingredients in the same week to make sure leftovers got used up. I hate meal planning and shopping list writing and this literally fixed it!

That sounds good! I have now got 19 meals everyone eats. Plus "something new".